Park Vandalism To Cost $500,000 For Repairs

By Miriam Rosenberg

On March 21, Queens Borough President Helen Marshall inspects the damage vandals did to the new park on Beach 29 Street. Photo courtesy of Queens Borough President’s office Last week’s vandalism of a new park still under construction on Beach 29 Street is now being investigated by the 101 Precinct Detective Squad, The Wave has learned.

At this month’s community council meeting on March 21, Deputy Inspector Michael Lipetri gave residents an update on what occurred early last Tuesday morning.

“Somebody or more than one person did a lot of damage to the park yesterday …,” said Liperti, the precinct’s commanding officer. “It’s estimated at about $500,000 worth of damage. It’s pretty extensive.”

According to the deputy inspector, they have the time of the crime narrowed down. With the many construction sites in the precinct, Lipetri created an initiative that has his officers checking sites for criminal activity at night. He says that it had to be between the time the car patrolled the area and when the foreman arrived to open the site. Last week The Wave reported the time at approximately 4 a.m.

Lipetri would not answer if any cameras were in the area that may have caught the destruction on film, but he did say a security guard is now stationed at the site.

While he said there were some leads, Lipetri stressed that it’s a “very active investigation,” though he couldn’t give any specific details so as not to compromise the investigation. He added that they are checking every avenue to find the perpetrators.

“In an investigation you have to look at everything, every angle is being looked at,” said Lipetri. “Is it a worker? Is it another construction site? Is it a coalition? Are they kids? We’re looking at everything. I just don’t want to hurt the investigation by talking about it.”

DNAinfo.com reported that the John Deere excavator used to plow down the playground has a universal key that can be “used to start other, similar machinery.”

On a visit to the site on Wednesday, Queens Borough President Helen Marshall noted the way the slides were destroyed saying that the interlocking pieces were broken apart after the slides were carefully taken apart.

“They really deliberately broke it,” Marshall said.

Crime Stoppers will pay up to $2,000 for information leading to an arrest and indictment of those responsible for the crime. All callers will remain anonymous. Tippers should call 1-800-577- TIPS and refer to the number Q-745 when calling.

The park is part of a $30 million project with a new park on Seagirt Boulevard that includes a skateboard park that opened in October.